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The Emperor of Ocean Park

Stephen L. Carter

3.60 · Rating details · 6,168 ratings · 767 reviews

Intricate, superbly written, often scathingly funny - a brilliantly crafted tapestry of ambition, family secrets, murder, integrity tested, and justice has gone terribly wrong.

An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. The Emperor of Ocean Park is set in two privileged worl ...more

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Paperback, 672 pages

Published May 27th 2003 by Vintage (first published 2002)

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Dec 23, 2015 Felice Laverne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mysteries, thrillers, full-review, contemporary-fiction, african-american-fiction, cultural-surveys, oh-where-have-you-been-all-my-life, lit-fic, legal-political

**As a note, this novel is listed in my GR "bio" as one of my favorite reads of all time! I wrote this review a few years ago, but I still have this book on my living room shelf. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it (!!) if you love thrillers, intelligent mysteries with puzzles, a level of erudite language and complex concepts, and reading accurate accounts of the small minority of minorities known as the upper echelon of black society (or, as W.E.B. DuBois called it, the Talented Tenth).**

The Emperor of O **As a note, this novel is listed in my GR "bio" as one of my favorite reads of all time! I wrote this review a few years ago, but I still have this book on my living room shelf. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it (!!) if you love thrillers, intelligent mysteries with puzzles, a level of erudite language and complex concepts, and reading accurate accounts of the small minority of minorities known as the upper echelon of black society (or, as W.E.B. DuBois called it, the Talented Tenth).**

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter hit the shelves with guns blazing over a decade ago, spurred by a multi-million-dollar book deal and rave reviews. His debut fiction novel, it stood out from the pack in that it’s written around the most highly educated of black society’s upper echelon and, more so, because it was written by a member of that very caste rather than by an outsider trying to immolate the nuances, prejudices, experiences and insights that could only be accurately and convincingly portrayed by one of their own. (Think Jhumpa Lahiri and Hanif Kureishi—this too can be considered a cultural exposé, embedded within a brilliant thrill ride, in the same vein.) The demographic that Carter writes around really is a lesser-known, lesser-publicized world of its own that necessitates candid unmasking by a member of the tribe itself.

This novel was a combination of mystery and conspiracy thriller, complete with antagonists lurking in the dark, the hint of extramarital affairs, academic and political betrayal and the scent of conspiracy in the air. Was murder involved or natural death? Was the Judge wrongfully accused and disgraced, or was he secretly deserving of his fate, the baddest of all bad guys behind closed political doors? This one also featured eloquently delivered, thoughtful prose that had the unmistakable lilt of a law professor’s seriousness without being staid. Indeed, it was emotive where it needed to be, while still offering those sharp references to societal issues--I am old enough to remember when few black women of her age wore their hair any other way, but nationalism turned out to be less an ideology than a fad being one of my personal favorites and certainly representative of his tone—that are jolting and appreciated for their wit, insight and stunning logical clarity.

Chess was at the center of this novel—a true Chess Master’s feast. It enveloped the plot line with an inventory of references that were brilliantly tied into the mystery and intrigue of the work, rather than simply being intellectual props for show. Carter even wove these allusions into his social commentary in a way that was graceful and not ostentatious, though some might consider it mildly pretentious—and why not? He’s writing with a hint of pretentiousness that makes his voice his own. I appreciated that voice and found his method, his cadence of tone, to be thrilling in a new way. I love a great thriller with heart-quickening twists and turns as much as the next thriller junkie, but an author who can write in this genre while evoking serious social deliberation and eloquence of finesse? It’s a feat often tried but seldom achieved with greatness, and I was caught off guard by the magnitude of his writing, by the eloquence of innuendos and by the fact that he managed to uncover this “hidden” world to the masses while still making it feel like a secret. In fact, I’d venture to say that a reader who could follow his intention, and who appreciates a view into the inner workings of dirty American politics, would feel that they’d been let in on a secret. And who doesn’t love to be let in on a secret?

While this novel is easily one of my all-time favorites for the plot line that kept me guessing and the delivery that made me a fan, it isn’t without its own Achilles’ heel. The Emperor could definitely have stood up to a haircut—snip a little here, shave a little there. While the word count itself was certainly not to be considered massive comparative to some, the style of writing and tendency towards verboseness of narrative at times made the novel feel more massive than it was, and the task of reading through the backstory of every minor character could be tedious. However, he is a master with creating characters; their voices were genuine and all their own, from hoity-toity “Lady Bugs” to self-entitled Trump-sound-alikes. With that in mind, yes, his editor definitely should have chopped it down a bit just to streamline this work, however would this then have been the cozy thriller that it was had they done so? Maybe not. I set aside the temptation towards docking this one a 1/2 star for the same reason that I did so with my last Stephen King review, because there’s no need to be petty. 5 stars. *****

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Feb 19, 2008 Roy rated it liked it

Shelves: african-american-fiction, mystery

The fact that this book explores university politics featuring east coast black upper-middle class characters made it stand out from the pack, but once you get over this facet (which I did pretty quickly), what you're left with is a well written and fairly intriguing mystery, more memorable than some I've read, less so than others. I suppose a book like this one is an antidote to the urban/hip hop/gangsta/etc. genre of "literature", not so much because it features black characters who are articu ...more

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Nov 27, 2008 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: four-five-star-books

Even though it took me FOREVER to finish, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Had it been 100-200 pages shorter and the editing a bit tighter, I would have given it a five star rating.

The characters are what drew me into the book and kept me there. While I've certainly seen and known educated and upper middle class African Americans like Talcott aka Misha (a law professor)and his wife Kimmer (a lawyer) in real life, I've rarely encountered them in the world of fiction and never with ...more

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Apr 23, 2008 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Johnny

Shelves: completed

This was one of the moodiest books I have ever read. A well-to-do African American family come together for the funeral of the family patriarch, a judge who once was in the running for a Supreme Court seat, but because of his connection with "Uncle Jack," a shadowy underworld figure, removed himself from consideration in disgrace.

This author is one of the best "mood-setters" I have ever read. He is able to describe alternately the joy of raising a child and the delight of discovering life throu This was one of the moodiest books I have ever read. A well-to-do African American family come together for the funeral of the family patriarch, a judge who once was in the running for a Supreme Court seat, but because of his connection with "Uncle Jack," a shadowy underworld figure, removed himself from consideration in disgrace.

This author is one of the best "mood-setters" I have ever read. He is able to describe alternately the joy of raising a child and the delight of discovering life through that child's eyes and then the sorrow of suspecting your spouse is not being faithful. The hero, Talcott, watches his life slowly crumble before him as his father's secrets slowly come to light. People want to know about his father's "arrangements" and others keep pushing him to find out more. He wrestles with memories of his father's alcoholic period, the loss of a sister, the estrangement of an older brother, at the same time dealing with annoying people in his family AND professional life as a law professor.

As the secrets are revealed, Talcott struggles to come to grips with who and what his father really was. There is one main mystery, but it is wrapped in careful layers, like an onion, and slowly peels off, one delectable bit at a time. The author is careful to never give us too much of the mystery's solution at a time, while providing wonderful details about the professor's life and family. He does this is such a well-balanced way that just about the time the reader thinks he is going nowhere, a little crumb of the mystery keeps the pages turning in search of another morsel.

I was also impressed with the author's ability to get "in-your-face" with spiritual values. The hero has several "counseling sessions" with a Baptist minister and the dialogue in those portions of the book are powerful- offering solid spiritual insights without apologies. In one party scene, an agnostic scholar squares off with the minister character about the existence of God and the result is shocking to find in a secular novel.

In summary, all I can say is WOW! What a carefully crafted work of art. ...more

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Jan 07, 2008 Ann rated it it was amazing

For almost a week Bob and I didn't talk to each other much. That's because he had his nose in this 800+ page book for the first part of the week, and I had mine in it for the second part. Unlike legal thrillers penned by other legally trained writers (e.g. Grisham, Turow, and Baldacci), this book is not one dimensional. It is complex, and the language is rich. It is a window into the world of affluent/well-educated members of the "darker nation" and the book unfolds like layers being peeled away ...more

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Apr 27, 2008 Plsullivan023 rated it really liked it

Carter has an extraordinary command of the English language. One of the most compelling books I've read, primarily for the vocabulary gymnastics. I was sent to my dictionary more than once. However, the plot line of this mystery is secondary to the breadth of Carter's knowledge of human nature. I also take exception to so many evidentiary holes in the mystery that are explained later -- getting the answer before we even know the reason for the question.
Author Carter's sometimes unreliable fir ...more

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Oct 18, 2015 Lauren Cecile rated it really liked it

I love big books and big ideas. I enjoyed reading this but was a little disappointed that the privileged African-Americans were just a description of the characters because their class and race were, for the most part, inconsequential to the story. They could have been Irish, French, middle class, etc. Good story, with numerous threads that were sometimes difficult to follow, but I just expected more about this particular demographic. Also well-written.

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Mar 24, 2009 C. rated it liked it

What's funny is that the very reason I loved this book so much at first is the reason I sort of was bored at the end -- the mystery is almost secondary to the the characters and relationships in the book. A number of the reviews have said the book was slow, but for the first 3/4 of the book, that didn't bother me at all. I actually liked how, instead of a real "who done it" mystery, Carter just really set up a great cast of characters, and only slowly set out even hints that there was a murder. ...more

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Apr 28, 2018 Lois rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: person-of-color-author, books-i-read-in-2018, books-i-own-digital-copy, mystery-thriller, black-books, poc-pov-char-or-peripheral-char

This truly is well done. I like Mr Carter's tone and the relaxed and personable manner in which his story unfolds. His use of language is lyrically elevated, slightly pretentious but not unapproachable or condescending. He offers multiple views on society, racism, poverty, etc that we are not familiar with in relation to Black American literary characters and he handles this balance well. He needs a better editor but at the same time this is incredible for a first novel.
I'll read his other book ...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Jonetta rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was a good story but could have been a lot shorter...too descriptive throughout. I found myself thinking, "Move on! I got it.". But, the story is worth the read. ...more

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Nov 11, 2020 Martin Clark rated it it was amazing

Great book--intricate, well written and entertaining.

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Sep 28, 2012 Joan Early rated it it was amazing

Reading The Emperor of Ocean Park reminded me of the classics that took forever to finish. Stephen L. Carter is a great storyteller. I understand our fascination with brevity and applaud the concept, though I often want more. This novel delivers. A family in turmoil with race as a factor, not a focus, is reading I enjoy. The suspense builds slowly, but the characters are interesting enough to hold my interest. Keep writing fiction, Mr. Carter.

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Jan 15, 2009 Michael David Cobb rated it it was ok

Shelves: the-black-shelf

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter. is a quite compelling if not evenly flowing or artistic read. It's an ambitious book that works on many different levels. As a first time novelist, Carter should have stuck to one or two, but in the end you are glad that he didn't.[return][return]As a thriller, it bites you slo-o-o-wly. I get the feeling that if Carter weren't so interested in putting us in his protagonist's stubborn and provincial shoes, we might figure out exactly what is going t The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter. is a quite compelling if not evenly flowing or artistic read. It's an ambitious book that works on many different levels. As a first time novelist, Carter should have stuck to one or two, but in the end you are glad that he didn't.[return][return]As a thriller, it bites you slo-o-o-wly. I get the feeling that if Carter weren't so interested in putting us in his protagonist's stubborn and provincial shoes, we might figure out exactly what is going to happen next. Of course you cannot guess because the twists and surprises go for almost 650 pages. The thriller could have been shortened by half. But if we were to do that, we would have had to make the protagonist less harried and more intrigued.[return][return]Talcott Garland is not intrigued, he is haunted by being the scion of a legendary judge and patriarch who has set in motion wrecking ball from the grave aimed directly at his upper middle-class life. Carter is not content to trace the trajectory of this wrecking ball as it crashes through the many windows and wall of Garland's complicated life - no that would be a thriller. Rather he draws out the contemplations of a man who may by his actions and reactions to the threats of this wrecking ball, may be going insane, or who may be becoming a hero. And since Talcott Garland is a member of the darker nation, Carter has reinscribed a new class of Negroes into the duBoisian dilemma of dual consciousness. What's so thrilling about that?[return][return]What's thrilling about it is that this is certainly what Carter must know he is doing. And as we like to say in the black upper middle class, 'this sets us back 100 years'. But that's just one angle on this story and I'll leave it at that.[return][return]Carter also injects a healthy dose of his most potent moralizing into the conscience of Talcott Garland who is forever trying to keep his wits and perspective about him. While he is surrounded by a whirlwind of manipulators and players, he tries desperately to play it straight. Talcott Garland has no guile to rely upon which gives him the courage to fight. Yet his abiding faith in his ability to recover the love of his cheating wife alone and finally serve honorably as head of his family pushes him to seek answers to the questions he'd rather not know. Garland comes armed with a host of virtues sown deeply in the ways and means of the talented tenth, but they are supplied not inherently but through his extended family. Each of a dozen family members and friends has a slice of those virtues and each imparts a bit of strength or knowledge upon poor Talcott as he valiantly struggles to unlock the mystery.[return][return]Furthermore as a story of the times, of the moral mishmash of career ambitions in academia and in Washington, it's a marvelous book that continues his non-fiction scolding by other means.[return][return]What absolutely floored me was the patience evidenced in the setting of traps by certain characters - there's not much you hear about anything so subtle in any fictional intrigue which has such a long horizon. Instead you hear the reverse, that mistakes made are long hid and only newly discovered by the hounding media or political opposition but that once discovered they are immediately brought to bear.[return][return]Further, I think Carter does an admirable job of bringing race in and out of focus naturally as the story progresses, which is how it happens in life.[return][return]It's a very ambitious book and quite a tall order for any writer. As an artist he's not quite up to the task. Although there are a number of gems in the form of page-long paragraphs you can just tell couldn't be dickered with, most of the writing is just writing. His habit of dropping annoying little bomblets of discovery at the very end of his chapters serves the purpose of helping keep parts of Talcott's recognition obscured to the reader, but gets tiresome. But the ending 200 pages makes up for it, given Talcott's final machinations and collaborations.[return][return]I think the book is a bit chaptery, and it comes as no surprise that he created 64 to coincide with the number of squares on a chessboard, but I would have liked Talcott to be a lot more chess-wise in his thinking. Even having him think "protect the queen" would have been better. Also I think Talcott needed to be frayed a lot more. It would have drawn me in deeper. One never gets the feeling that Talcott's ruination would evoke in him the ugly side of losing one's status, I didn't sense his contempt for his potential lower-class neighbors, or his sense of how he would adapt. Talcott's mushy self-esteem is not a compelling place for a reader, but it does serve the purposes of Carter's moral lecture...[return][return]Carter's imagery of Martha's Vineyard is not so descriptive so much as evocative for those who already have some emotional resonance with the place. But I found myself riding along on the ferry, gazing of the cliffs at Gay Head and lazily walking the Circuit along with him.[return][return]The book is fascinating and bears up under different layers of scrutiny. That is what makes it good, and a must read for those of us who have shared, at various points in our life, the muddled consciousness of Talcott Garland. ...more

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Apr 01, 2019 Patricia Williams rated it really liked it

My mystery book club read this many years ago. Excellent read.

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May 27, 2008 Todd Huish rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: grisham fans, lovers of mystery/thrillers

Recommended to Todd by: NPR

I don't know what it is about lawyers writing complicated thrillers but, evidently, they're pretty good at it. I think Grisham is the one everyone knows but after reading "The Emporer of Ocean Park" I say there's a new gun in town and his name is Stephen L. Carter.

I heard about this book on NPR during its media blitz and his interview was sufficiently interesting enough to get me to try it out. A lot of books I get from NPR aren't always the most riveting or nearly as interesting as they first ...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Nancy by: Lisa

Shelves: mystery

This is the best mystery I have read in a long, long time and wonder where I was when it first came out.
Stephen Carter writes extremely well and creates fleshy characters with class and depth. His plot is rich with revelations and twists and the pace is good. It is also a thoughtful, sensitive novel which allows its major players to interact in intelligent ways.
Talcott Garland is a law professor at an unnamed Ivy League law school and is married to Kimberly, a lawyer in the running for a posi ...more

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Jul 25, 2010 William rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: academia, mystery, legal-thriller

The Emperor of Ocean Park, which dedicates quite a number of pages to the game of chess its narrator loves, is itself a sort of chess match. Author Carter runs multiple sophisticated plots concurrently through the story, making Emperor a novel of academia, of racial and professional politics (here often identically aimed), a straight-up legal thriller, and a story of an already disintegrating family coping with the loss of its domineering patriarch – all of which somehow meld into a coherent and ...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Gigi rated it really liked it

Shelves: suspense-mystery

A father dies and his son must figure out what secrets he has left behind. Others also want to know what the "arrangements" are and so begins the book. I tend to not read a lot of suspense books but I enjoyed this one. There are times where the side stories take a little too much ink but I feel that many of the side stories added to the depth of the story so you never knew which people or bits of information were important to the main plot and which supported the subplots. I also liked how the m ...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Jason Haynes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This was a good, fun read. Carter enjoys playing the mystery writer and he is at his best in this novel. None of his subsequent works quite reach the craft practiced here. For that and his description of the elites of Black America, this novel is a terrific read.

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Mar 19, 2008 William rated it did not like it

Hated it..Soap opera from a conservative Yale professor..please..needs to stick to his day job.

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Jan 30, 2009 Bryan R. added it

This is one of the best books I ever read. It is part thriller, part peak into black Martha's Vineyard, part academia. So many interesting twists and characters. ...more

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Jul 21, 2019 Peter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction-thriller

Stephen Carter, is a unique talent: a prize-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction, he is also a law professor at Yale University. The Emperor of Ocean Park derives its title from the sobriquet given by a magazine to Judge Oliver Garland, a key but short-lived character. This is an astounding novel that feels like non-fiction in many ways, a book filled with ideas and lots of moving parts.

For those who like crime thrillers, it's a treat; chess fans will be interested because chess plays ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Nichole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-suspense-thrillers-horror, african-diaspora

This book was fantastic, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get to it. Although sixteen years later is better than never, I wish that I had grabbed this book when everyone else (in the world) did - when it was published. I remember 2002. This book stayed on the bestseller lists for several weeks. Stephen Carter's name was on everyone's lips - except mine. Why the disinterest? What took me so long? The usual reason: I had my nose stuck in an old, dusty, out-of-print novel (the kind I prefer), so ...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Naomi rated it it was ok

Carter is a good writer in the sense that he puts words and sentences together in a way that is mostly enjoyable to read (although he tends to over-use certain pat phrases -- his use of "darker nation" and "paler nation" was ok once or twice but tiresome after a while.) But at the end of the day, the plot, although complex and fairly engaging while you are reading it, has MAJOR holes in it. The most glaring hole is that if you actually ponder the motive of the person who turns out to have done i ...more

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Dec 02, 2020 Gabriella added it

Shelves: 2020-reads, did-not-finish, wake-county-library-custom-lists

I want y'all to know that I really tried with this one, for a long while! This year was supposed to be the year I really moved into several mysteries and thrillers, and so I was excited to try this book that'd been personally suggested to me through my library's recommendation program. It seemed like a group of people I'd be interested in mocking--I mean reading--about, and so I was excited to dive in.

BUT: The wry, detached narrative style just does not work for me. I felt this way in The Long F ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 LATOYA JOVENA rated it liked it

I enjoyed this book but it has some serious flaws. It took way too long for me to feel any suspense and I don't like the protagonist. He's a shell of man in the shadow of every single person around him. His dead dad. His older brother. His unfaithful wife.
Also there are way too many characters who, in my opinion, are all alike. Wealthy. Highly educated lawyers.
There are a few good laughs though. ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Di Richardson rated it really liked it

I read a review calling this book intricate, and I think that’s a very good word to describe it. It starts with the death of Oliver Garland who is a prominent African-American judge, and was once a nominee for the Supreme Court. That nomination was tanked, and the judge publicly humiliated, because of a relationship he had with a prominent crime figure. After the judges death, his son Talcott starts receiving cryptic messages about some big secret that the judge had, and Tal has to unravel those ...more

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Oct 02, 2020 Ieisha rated it did not like it

Do. Not. Read. This.

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Jul 28, 2007 Shayla rated it really liked it

OK, so I finally finished the book and I really liked it! In addition to the use of the terms "darker nation" and "paler nation", which I thought was a simple but wonderful way to distinguish the races (I tire of having to say black and white), the writing was really quite good. This was not a short novel, so Carter had enough pages to develop the characters and I'm glad that he did. I came to understand, though not always like, the whole Garland clan and their actions, even little Bentley. Thos ...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Deirdre rated it liked it

This was entertaining. Talcott defintely became a character for whom one can sympathize, from his failing marriage with Kimmer, to his heart rending tenderness toward his son, to his anguish over the mysterious and dangerous legacy his father has haunted him. I found the chess descriptions and the circle of law a bit dry. I do have a rudimentary knowledge of chess - but the description of "double excelsior" left me scratching my head. And being a former litigation attorney and UGH! law student, ...more

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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Adult Mystery. Man (lawyer?) is estranged from his father (patriarch, circuit court judge) but after his father passes away he needs to solve a mystery. He slowly pulls pieces together. Most of the characters are black. Black author. [s]	9	23	Jul 06, 2020 12:55AM

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About Stephen L. Carter

Stephen L. Carter

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Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale where he has taught since 1982. He has published seven critically acclaimed nonfiction books on topics ranging from affirmative action to religion and politics. His first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002), was an immediate national best seller. His latest novel is New England White (Knopf, 2007). A recipient of the NAA ...more

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